Configuring Passive Surveys

For the passive surveys, there are multiple ways how you can configure your Wi-Fi device which channels to scan. The easiest and most direct way is simply to click on the adapter's Mini Live Signal view on the top right-hand side corner. You can also configure the channels by selecting Measurement > Adapter and Channel Configuration or by clicking the Adapter and Channel Config cartwheel icon which will take you the Devices Window. From the Devices Window, you can see the all currently connected Wi-Fi devices, their status, scanning configuration, and device information.

Click on the Mini Live Signal view to configure channel scanning configuration of individual adapters

Click on the cartwheel icon to access Devices Window and to see all connected devices

Ekahau Site Survey will automatically configure the connected Wi-Fi adapters to optimally scan all channels.

Ekahau Sidekick has two Wi-Fi adapters in it and it will split the scanned 2.4Ghz & 5Ghz channels evenly between the two adapters. This minimizes the discrepancy in the scan cycles between the adapters.

If you have two SA-1 adapters, the channels will be split evenly between the adapters on 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz frequencies.

If you have two NIC-300 adapters, one adapter will scan all 2.4Ghz channels and one adapter will scan all 5Ghz channels.

If you have three SA-1 or NIC-300 adapters connected, one adapter will be used to scan all 2.4GHz channels, one for the lower 5GHz channels, and one for the higher 5GHz channels.

To adjust the scanning configuration of the Wi-Fi adapter, click on the Channels buttons. You can disable the automatic channel configuration from the Preferences menu, select File > Preferences > Automatic channel configuration.

On the Channel Configuration window, you can manually configure which channels to scan. You can either select to scan all channels on 2.4GHz and/or 5GHz frequency band or select particular channels to scan. Scanning just one frequency band or limiting the number of scanned channels reduces the overall scan time, which allows more data to be collected over time, which in turn, allows faster site surveys.

This free channel configuration works on Ekahau Sidekick, SA-1 and NIC-300 adapters.

Note: The scan settings cannot be configured for all Wi-Fi devices. For example, the scan settings in the built-in Wi-Fi adapter of an Intel Centrino cannot be configured.